I wasn't feeling well yesterday so I couch potatoed for much of the afternoon. Not being a huge golf fan,* I couldn't find much to look at but cable news. Lucky me, it turns out that the most momentous event of the century, and possibly in all of human history, happened yesterday, and I got to hear 157 people yammer on about it for hours.
I don't know where to being deconstructing all the bullshit. This was, obviously, technologically inconsequential. Alan Shepard completed the first sub-orbital flight by an American 60 years ago. Unlike Richard Branson, Shepard actually did go into what is officially considered outer space. Branson only traveled to a height of about 60 miles, which is up there, but no, it isn't a flight into space. Since Shepard's flight, of course, people have been to the moon and back, and now they're living in low earth orbit and we're sending robots throughout the solar system. A system that gets you 60 miles up and then comes right back down is utterly useless for any purpose other than impressing idiots.
CNN actually brought on a bozo who claimed that this was an important historical milestone because eventually, the sun will expand and the earth will become uninhabitable, so humanity will have to expand beyond the earth. This was the first step that we needed to take. Yes, that is a legitimate problem -- a billion years from now. I think we can wait a while before we start panicking. And again, flying up 60 miles and coming right back down isn't going to help.
All that happened is that a billionaire pulled off a meaningless stunt. And oh yeah, burned a lot of fossil fuel in the process. That MSNBC and CNN could talk about nothing else for 5 hours is pathetic. No, this was not a historically important event, or even a slightly important event, or even an event that anybody should give two shits about.
Also, too: Lettuce B. Kleer: the economic value of humans in space is zero. Actually less than zero, because there is nothing that humans can do in space that robots can't do better and much, much cheaper. The government is pouring billions of dollars into contracts with these private corporations -- how do you think the R&D is financed -- all for the sake of theater.
Let me add: Apparently some people can't get the point. I actually don't think that asteroid mining is ever going to be economically viable. Asteroids consist mostly of the most common elements of the earth's crust -- silicon, iron, carbon, nickel. Some contain substantial amounts of platinum series metals, which are valuable, but the expense of going millions of miles into space and bringing it back seems prohibitive. Anyway, if I'm wrong about that, there is nothing humans can do in space that robots can't do better and cheaper, a lot cheaper, including asteroid mining. (Actually humans are having less and less to do with mining here on earth.) And there's no reason why human supervisors need to be anywhere nearby, they can be supervised from earth, maybe with the help of a relay satellite. Speed of light, right?
6 comments:
America has nothing left to offer it's own but bread and circuses. We're over.
NB: While most work in space will inevitably be done by robots you will need a few humans to supervise and safeguard. When we start flinging ore-laden asteroids from the belt to earth orbit you will want a human to flip the firing switch.
I hate to say it, but I have been thinking the same thing that Mo just stated. Everything here is idiocy, bread and circuses, with a very small educated elite that has no sway over the greedy, solipsistic masses, who are obsessed with money, entertainment, drugs and alcohol, celebrity, and masking the underarm odor of their toned, tanned bodies. Meanwhile, the unbanked, who must represent at least half of the population, are simply running too fast to their second and third jobs to worry about anything else. Since we needed to stop burning fossil fuel yesterday, I don’t see any hope for this country with its whorish politicians and woefully inadequate media. And that doesn’t even include the far right lunatics ruling over Fucks Spews and similar networks. Seems like it’s all a big, mindless game to most people — if they have any awareness at all.
Following follow up:
Ironic innit that Americans as a group have much more interest in sports than politics? Tune into talking heads discussing a sport and you'll hear more history and minutia, and depth, than would be tolerated in any discussion about politics. Yet sports' outcomes are meaningless to the lives of our decendents, but political decisions can be crucial.
When I try to understand the hold sports have on our imagination, it seems that a key component is the 'level playing field' of the contests. Just witness the rage directed at teams that try to steal an opposing catcher's signals to his pitcher, or the uproar over a slightly deflated football, or Pete Rose being banned for life for betting on his own team!.
Maybe I missed it, but I've never seen a parody of voter suppression laws using sports as the vehicle. For example: In any game played in Texas the home team gets to pick all the officials; If the home team is behind at the end of regulation play an extra period (inning, quarter) is added to the game; If the home team is still behind the officials will make a detailed review of the videos of the entire game and invalidate the outcome if any discrepancy is found. I'm sure there are better analogues than these but I'm not a sportsman.
Can you imagine the uproar if any of these rules were passed? Hey, it's just a game!
We need some way to frame voter suppression laws that will highlight their utter absurdity. This is the best I can come up with.
Chuckie, that is absolutely freaking brilliant. George Carlin would be proud of you. That all said, and along these lines, I can’t believe the Astros were allowed to keep their World Series title in 2019 any more than W Bush the moron was allowed to steal the election from Al Gore. And I believe the Astros are still cheating because the consequences just weren’t that bad. The consequences for the earth around us as a result of the 2000 stolen election are infinitely worse.
I do actually think the ISS is a waste of money as a scientific project. It's kind of fun and it has encouraged some international cooperation, including among otherwise hostile nations, but no, there's nothing particularly useful to be done there. The main scientific purpose is studying the effects of time in space on humans, which is useful only if you think humans spending time in space is useful. Kind of circular.
I am 100%, fervently, in favor of basic research in space. It is best done by robots. Learn to read.
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